Alecto, a fantastic hag, stands outside the Crown and Anchor tavern between a diminutive Sheridan (left), playing a fife, and Fox (right), a burly drummer, both wearing regimentals. She towers above them, holding a long pike surmounted by a cap of 'Liberty' and holding out to John Bull, a yokel, a handful of 'Assignats'. Hissing serpents form her hair and serpents suck at the pendent breasts which her ragged garments do not cover. She has webbed wings, and wears a French cocked hat with a tricolour cockade inscribed 'Liberty'. She says: "Come on my brave Lad, take this bounty-money, & enter into my Company of Gentlemen Volunteers enlisted in the cause of Liberty - I'll find you present pay and free quarters, & I'll lead you where you shall fill your knapsack with Plunder; - nay Man, never talk about your old Master the Farmer, I'll find you Hundreds of Masters as good as he; Zounds I'll make you one of the Masters of England yourself: - come on, I say, keres riches for you, - come on; the glorious 14th of July is approaching, when Monarchs are to be crush'd like maggots, & brave men like yourself are to be put in their places - here hold your hand, enter boldly in the cause of Freedom, & cry Huzza - Vive la Nation! Huzza". John Bull stands on the left, scratching his head with a puzzled grin; he wears a smock and very wrinkled gaiters; his hat and a pitchfork are in his left hand. He answers: "Wounds, Measter Sarjeant, an I should enter into your sarvice, what'll Varmer-George say to I, for leaving of 'en without warning? - and yet I is half in love with the sound of your drum; & wishes to leave off Ploughing & dunging, & wear one of your vine cockades, & be a French Gentleman; - & yet, dangs it, it goes against ones heart to leave the Varmer; - ah Varmer George has been a rare good Measter to I! - but, am I to have all them fine paper Moneys - but to leave my old Measter! Ah me! I dozes'nt know what to do, not I!" -- British Museum catalogue
Alternative Title:
Recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the Revolution's Service, Alecto and her train at the gate of pandaemonium, and Alecto and her train at the gate of pandaemonuim, or, The recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the Revolution Service
Description:
Title inscribed in brown ink below image., 'Imprint statement' inscribed in brown ink above title: Pub. July 4th, 1791 by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly., Description of published Gillray print in Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6, no. 7889., Wright, T. Description of published Gillray print in Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist with the history of his life and times, p. 130., Wright, T. Description of published Gillray print in Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures by James Gillray, no. 56., and A 'counterprint' or transfer in brown ink from another print on verso of mount: The hopes of the party prior to July 14th.
Subject (Name):
Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, Earl, 1753-1816, George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, and Revolution Society (London, England)
Subject (Topic):
John Bull (Symbolic character), Drums (Musical instruments), Demons, Witches, and Fire
"Pitt (left), as a toreador, rides a rearing white horse (of Hanover) with a spear directed horizontally against a buil (John Bull) snorting fire and bleeding from many wounds. He wears a short tunic and sash; his saddle-cloth is a leopard-skin on which is a crest: the white horse of Hanover enclosed in a Garter ribbon inscribed 'Honi soit qui mal y pense', and surmounted by a crown. He looks alarmed and spurs his horse viciously. Two tiers of spectators in an arc of the arena are freely sketched. In the upper row George III looking through a glass is in the centre, on his left is the Queen, on his right Loughborough. The man next the Queen is (?) Grenville. In the lower tier Fox is conspicuous with (?) the Prince of Wales on his left; Sheridan stands behind them. The other spectators are members of the Opposition or ragamuffins. Those who can be identified are (right to left): Stanhope, Derby, Grafton, Lansdowne. A chimney-sweep applauds with brush and shovel. ..."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Three lines of text beginning to the left of title and continuing below it: Description from the royal bull fight of 1795. Then entered a bull of the true British breed ..., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local subject terms: Opposition -- Treason -- Emblems : the White Horse of Hanover -- Male costume: toreador.
Publisher:
Pubd. Novr. 21st, 1795, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street
Subject (Name):
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Charlotte, consort of George III, King of Great Britain, 1744-1818, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Lansdowne, William Petty, Marquis of, 1737-1805, Smith-Stanley, Edward, 1752-1834, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, Earl, 1753-1816, Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of, 1735-1811, and Rosslyn, Alexander Wedderburn, Earl of, 1733-1805